MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia is short nearly 1,200 certified teachers, according to West Virginia University, and a new $1.6 million initiative will try to fill some of those gaps by training teachers closer to home and making it easier for people already working in schools to become certified.
The three-year effort takes an unusual approach to the teacher shortage: rather than simply recruiting more people into education, it will connect prospective teachers with West Virginia communities where they may be more likely to stay.
One part of the program, called the “Take-Me-Home Teacher Residency Pathway,” will allow WVU undergraduate education students to spend their final year gaining classroom experience in their home communities.
Another will target people already working in West Virginia schools. School paraprofessionals with associate’s degrees can pursue bachelor’s degrees in elementary education through specialized distance learning, potentially allowing them to become certified teachers without leaving the communities where they already live and work.
“This program works from multiple directions at once,” said Matthew Campbell, interim director of the university’s School of Education and Counseling and director of the project.
Campbell said the program is designed for several groups, including undergraduate students, licensed teachers not currently working in West Virginia, and paraprofessionals already employed in schools.
Teacher shortages remain a statewide problem
West Virginia has struggled for years to maintain enough certified teachers in its public schools.
The West Virginia Department of Education continues to designate numerous subjects as areas of critical need and shortage. Those include mathematics, elementary education, science, English, special education, social studies, and several other fields. The state also recognizes a shortage of available certified substitute teachers.
The problem has prompted the state to develop several alternative routes into teaching. County-based programs, for example, can allow qualified people with bachelor’s degrees to work toward certification while filling positions in subjects where teachers are needed.
The university’s new effort is intended to add another approach, particularly for rural communities where recruiting a teacher is only part of the problem. Keeping that teacher in the community is another, according to WVU Provost Beverly Wendland.
“Preparing and retaining great teachers is one of the most important investments we can make in the future of West Virginia,” Wendland said.
Recruiting teachers by connecting them to communities
A third part of the initiative will expand an existing program that tries to persuade teachers to put down roots in West Virginia communities.
The West Virginia Public Education Collaborative’s Teachers Ascend program, already operating in Monongalia and Preston counties, will expand recruitment efforts into Morgan and Berkeley counties.
Participants can receive support for professional development as well as recreational opportunities and community events intended to help teachers establish connections outside their classrooms.
Donna Hoylman Peduto, director of the collaborative, said the approach uses some of West Virginia’s strengths to address the shortage while helping educators develop “a strong sense of community.”
The combination reflects a broader idea behind the project: teachers may be more likely to stay in West Virginia if their training, jobs, and personal lives connect to the places where they work.
For students originally from West Virginia, that can mean returning home to complete their training. For paraprofessionals, it can mean becoming a teacher without first leaving home to earn another degree.
For teachers recruited from elsewhere, it means giving them reasons to become part of the community beyond the school.
The initiative is expected to support 120 teachers during its first three years.
Funding includes more than $1.6 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission’s POWER Initiative, a federal-state program intended to help communities affected by changes in the coal economy. Additional support will come from the Benedum Foundation, Steeley Foundation, and WVU.
Nathan Sorber, interim dean of WVU’s College of Applied Human Sciences, said the project will allow the university to put its research on rural teacher recruitment and retention into practice.
“This grant lets us respond to that at scale,” Sorber said.
For West Virginia communities struggling to fill classrooms, the experiment will test a relatively simple proposition. One way to find more teachers may be to help people become teachers where they already call home, Sorber said.